Cruis.In Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 That time again, upgrading my video card for fall out 3. i have a core 2 duo, 2 gig ram, win xp pciex2 slots looking for mid range nvidia, since my pc came with geforce and i been happy with it even tho i always used ati in years gone by. its a 7900gs nice but too old now want something to handle fall out 3 about 30 fps always even if its only medium detail. right now im 30 fps, but that drops, and its medium detail. any suggestions so i can start looking? i havent kept up with vid card advancement or competition, help me out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 It would be a lot more helpful if you actually indicated what your budget was. You also need to know what your PSU rating is. Also if you have one or two spare PCIe connectors on the PSU because some high end cards (like the nVidia GTX boards) need two connectors, not one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruis.In Posted December 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 It would be a lot more helpful if you actually indicated what your budget was. You also need to know what your PSU rating is. Also if you have one or two spare PCIe connectors on the PSU because some high end cards (like the nVidia GTX boards) need two connectors, not one. ok ill download a program to check my psu rating, when you say pcie connector you mean the power cable that goes into it right? I have two of them. I have two pcie slots. price range about 250u.s will update post with psu rating later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 THere is no program that is going to give you your Power Supply Unit (PSU) rating. You can just open the machine and look at it. The wattage for all PSUs is listed (e.g. 430w) on it. For $250 US, your choices are plentiful and limited (depending on your PSU, its connectors etc) all at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruis.In Posted December 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 THere is no program that is going to give you your Power Supply Unit (PSU) rating. You can just open the machine and look at it. The wattage for all PSUs is listed (e.g. 430w) on it. For $250 US, your choices are plentiful and limited (depending on your PSU, its connectors etc) all at the same time. program to rate psu hehe, funny, my manual says its 750w. im looking at the HD 4870. how do i know if its compatible any way to test? im not sure what 4 pin or 6 pin is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 The Radeon HD4870 (comparable to the GeForce GTX 260) is a very capable board and you probably won't need to upgrade for awhile. If your PSU is 750W, then it probably has the required connectors. You need 500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors or a 600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX. The connectors are what power the card and go from the PSU into the card. ATI has a page for recommended certified power supplies The fifth image over here shows you what the 6-pin PCIe connectors look like. They also come in 4-pin on some boards. So your PSU has to have two of those 6 or 4 pin connectors depending on the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruis.In Posted December 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 well thanks for those pictures. in the 6th picture, those cables on the left, the end facing us is exactly how my connectors look, seems to be 4 pin slots, 4 holes. and i have 2 and 2 pcie slots. dunno if its pcie 2.0 or not. i think theres an adaptor i can get right, from 4pin - 6 pin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 well thanks for those pictures. in the 6th picture, those cables on the left, the end facing us is exactly how my connectors look, seems to be 4 pin slots, 4 holes. and i have 2 and 2 pcie slots. dunno if its pcie 2.0 or not. i think theres an adaptor i can get right, from 4pin - 6 pin? I have no clue what you're talking about. The PSU should either have a 6-pin PCIe cable built in or it should have a standard Molex to 6-Pin PCIe connector. Either way, the idea is to power the card from the PSU. So if your PSU only has a Molex connector, you are going to need two of either one. Then you're going to need two Molex to 6-Pin PCIe connectors and connect one into each 6-Pin connector on the video card. When in doubt, contact your PSU manual. And if you don't know if your slots are PCIe 2.0 or not, consult the manual for your computer or motherboard. Seriously, READ the manuals!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruis.In Posted December 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2008 I have no clue what you're talking about. The PSU should either have a 6-pin PCIe cable built in or it should have a standard Molex to 6-Pin PCIe connector. Either way, the idea is to power the card from the PSU. So if your PSU only has a Molex connector, you are going to need two of either one. Then you're going to need two Molex to 6-Pin PCIe connectors and connect one into each 6-Pin connector on the video card. When in doubt, contact your PSU manual. And if you don't know if your slots are PCIe 2.0 or not, consult the manual for your computer or motherboard. Seriously, READ the manuals!!! been a while since i been inside it, last time was because it wouldnt boot. i did a bios reset, by taking out the battery and it fixed it, seriously what the hell can go wrong like that that you have to reset bios? rhetorical ok ok about the manual, dont remember it being that detailed though nvidia nforce 590 sli mcp thats my mobo, and from checking online, it was a high end gamer mobo released in 2006, supports core 2 extreme and am2 chips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShoHashi Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 I'm planning on upgrading my videocard within the next week or so. I have 2 cards I'm looking at. The first one is a GeForce 9800 GT and the other is a Radeon HD 4670. Does anyone have any recommendations between the two? -Sho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted March 29, 2009 Report Share Posted March 29, 2009 Get the 9800GT because then you'll have PhysX and CUDA support for games that will support it since all GF8 and above cards do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShoHashi Posted March 29, 2009 Report Share Posted March 29, 2009 Get the 9800GT because then you'll have PhysX and CUDA support for games that will support it since all GF8 and above cards do. Thanks for the input, SC! -Sho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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